


Consummate

by LauraEMoriarty, potionsmaster



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, The Reaper War, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-09
Updated: 2017-02-09
Packaged: 2018-09-23 01:02:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9633110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LauraEMoriarty/pseuds/LauraEMoriarty, https://archiveofourown.org/users/potionsmaster/pseuds/potionsmaster
Summary: She sometimes thought about the young lieutenant she had nearly kissed the morning the war began in earnest-- of how they had flirted and danced, and she had thrashed him thoroughly in a sparring match.





	

Valentine’s Day had come and gone, without any acknowledgement. Aoife didn’t particularly care, they’d had bigger things to worry about than a commercialised holiday that had its roots, like most so-called  _ Christian _ saints holidays, in pagan origins. After all, it had once been a pagan fertility festival, and Aoife didn’t see the point in buying gifts just because an advertising company had come up with a brilliant way to milk money out of consumers.

 

She shook her head at herself, and wrapped her hands around her steaming mug of jasmine green tea, remembering how, after a meditation lesson with Samara, the Justicar would pour them the asari equivalent of jasmine tea. It had tasted the same, maybe just a tiny bit sweeter. Aoife had been glad to get hold of some, as shortages mounted and the war became even more brutal. She sighed at the thought that things would probably get worse, and not better. 

 

Hope seemed to evaporate every time they landed on a new planet, watching the galaxy valiantly battle the Reaper forces that turned their own people into monsters. Just like the husks they’d battled three years ago, when they’d been ignorant of the true threat, it hurt Aoife to think of the lives that had perished and been reborn as reaper troops.

 

In this bleak and unforgiving war, she wondered about a lot of things-- but mostly, she thought of the people she had lost, people that were no longer around. She sometimes thought about the young lieutenant she had nearly kissed the morning the war began in earnest-- of how they had flirted and danced, and she had thrashed him thoroughly in a sparring match.

 

They had been nothing but consummate soldiers and professionals since then. Aoife danced around her feelings for him, the flutter in her stomach whenever she saw him, the way he would catch her eye, and wink at her. There really was no stopping whatever it was she felt for him.

 

“Thought I might find you here,” James’s voice broke into her thoughts, and Aoife startled, her mug of tea splashing over her hoodie and onto her belly. She hissed as the liquid burned, and glared up at James.

 

“Holy fuck, don’t startle me,” Aoife admonished him, but a smile tugged at her lips.

 

“I’m just glad you didn’t break my nose this time,” James replied with a smile of his own. He took the seat next to her, and pulled a small object from his pocket. “I uh… got this for you the other day.”

 

Aoife took the small object from him, and flipped the lid open to reveal a small ammo mod that would make her favourite pistol far more efficient. She glanced up at James, beaming.

 

“Thank you,” she said. “Seriously, this is the best present anyone’s ever given me.”

 

“Uh, well, uh…” James said, “I thought you’d find it useful.”

 

She reached across the distance between them, her forehead coming to rest against his. Knowing that if she didn’t kiss him now, she never would. His lips found hers first, and all the months of dancing around their feelings for one another, vanished.

 

Her lips parted as the kiss deepened, tongues sliding against one another. It felt right, it felt good. His hands drew her closer, so she almost straddled him on the chair. The months Aoife had spent wondering what kissing James would feel like vanished, knowing now that all the imagining could come nowhere close to how good it felt in reality. She preferred the reality to the fantasy.

 

“Shall we go somewhere more… private?” Aoife broke the kiss off long enough to graze his earlobe, her voice breathy. She stood, taking James by the hand as she led them to the elevator, and then typed a command into her omnitool to turn off the cameras in the captain's cabin, overriding EDI’s protests.

 

Fortunately, the trip from the hall to the elevator had been deserted. Nobody, Aoife hoped, had seen them. The last thing she wanted was to be hauled up again in front of the disciplinary committee for fraternising. Though honestly, at this point, they  _ needed _ her. They needed the war hero, the decorated Commander Shepard, first Human Spectre, not Aoife, the human beneath the title.

 

If she were being entirely honest, she didn’t give a fuck right now.

 

They made it to her couch, Aoife straddling James as they continued kissing, each kiss soft, lingering.

 

This made up entirely for missing Valentine’s Day.


End file.
